Monday, 21 April 2014

Suppose that by some historical mishap a section of
your neighbours' land been included into your block. In farming communities this
can happen due to a bad sense of direction while fencing.

It is up to the owner of the land to have the land
surveyed and the cost of fencing the area properly are shared 50-50 between the
neighbours.

Once this land is returned to the legal owner it is
up to the owner to control weeds and feral pest.

Not so if the land in question are crown roads
belonging to the state government.

The state government has decided that you the land
holder have to pay for the land surveyed then pay for all the fencing and once
this is done you are still responsible for weeds and feral pest.

Talk about a bad neighbour, you cannot even take
them to court to achieve a fairer settlement.

I suppose I should explain what crown roads are,
they are in reality lines that were drawn on maps to accommodate for population
expansion, or access to plots of land.

No investigation was done to find out the need or suitability
of these roads. The result is that there are roads going through wetlands,
floodplains, through steep gullies and even up cliff faces.

For years the rent was very low, then the state
government had a problem with the crown roads around the Sydney harbour area. Millionaires
renting foreshore crown roads for $5 per year so KPMG the financing firm were
brought in to investigate and report on the crown road systems.

The result was the rent for these crown roads went
through the roof, it all depended how many blocks of land you own and how many
crown roads are within the blocks. Increases in rent from $50 per year to $800
per year are common.

If this was residential land you could go to the
rental board and protest the large rental increase. but since the state
government is the landlord you do not have any options for redress.

I agreed to buy the crown roads on my land 7 years
ago when I received their offer of purchase, but because of the inactivity of
the Department of Trade & Investment Crown Lands it has taken them 7 years
to present me with their final offer.

All this time I was forced to pay them rent on the
roads. Since it was no fault of mine that the process took so long I thought
that at least some of that rent money should be credited towards the sale.

Not so the state governments reply.

Then we come to the purchase price of the crown
roads, this process has followed the same reasoning that caused the roads to be
created.

Neverland thinking has decided that the valuer
generals estimation of property value should be used regardless of the market
value of the land or its production potential.

This means that cliff faces can cost $7,000 per
hectare, and is included if you wish to fence the area out.

Wetlands are another source of problems, these areas
come under the state government Wetland policy SEPP 14, with all the
restrictions to land use that are under
this act, but when the price of crown roads is concerned it makes no
difference.

An example of this is a lower Clarence farmer who
owns land that is a wetland. He has been told that the crown roads on his
property will cost him $7,243 hectare. When he pointed out that his neighbour
who has flood free prime cropping land has had his place on the market for 3
years for $3,000 per hectare and has still not been able to sell his land, he was told that it was not relevant and the price
of the crown roads in his farm would remain at the price the department demanded.

Back to my gripes with this process - it has taken
the state government 7 years to come to the party and give me a price for the
crown roads on my property yet they give me a deadline of 30 days to accept or
decline the offer.

It seems that I have no right to negotiate a more
realistic price for this land based on market value or production potential or
restriction imposed by the state government. If I refuse to buy the roads I
have two options:

Pay
for surveying the land and fencing it out of my property, and then still be
responsible for weeds and feral pests on this land. Not to mention that the
road would cut the property into two portions which would make the farm
management very hard.

Pay
the rent that the state government demands, which has no basis in land use or
land value. Currently the state government rent on 2 hectare on a 97 hectare
property is more than a third of my council rates. I am sure that this rent
will increase exponentially.

So what can you do when the state government, who
makes the rules and enforces them, extorts farmers to pay for a historical
stuff-up of the government's making.

Then the state government demands fees and charges
of over $1,700 which are not negotiable on each transaction.

Who do you go to get some justice? Who has the money
to take this to the courts? Not me.

This process is a classic standover practice
commonly used by criminal gangs but because it is the state government using
this process it is deemed legal, with no thought given to fairness or justice.

I wonder if they’ll accept that interesting bottle of Grange I
found on my doorstep this morning in lieu of those dollars........

No comments:

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Moggy Musings

Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.

A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.

A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!

An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.

A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.

A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?

A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.

An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?

A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.

A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.

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An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.